Samba Officially Adopts GPLv3 for Future Releases

In a note from leading Samba developer Jeremy Allison, The Samba Group announced that it is keeping its promise to move its code base to GPLv3.

In a note from leading Samba developer Jeremy Allison, The Samba Group announced that it is keeping its promise to move its code base to GPLv3.

It wasn't an automatic move though. Without going into detail, Allison wrote, "After internal consideration in the Samba Team we have decided to adopt the GPLv3 and LGPLv3 licenses for all future releases of Samba." The Samba programmers feel that "[t]he GPLv3 ... has been updated to improve compatibility with other licenses and to make it easier to adopt internationally, and is an improved version of the license to better suit the needs of free software in the 21st century."

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols is editor of eWEEK.com's Linux & Open Source Center and Ziff Davis Channel Zone. Prior to becoming a technology journalist, Vaughan-Nichols worked at NASA and the Department of Defense on numerous major technological projects. Since then, he's focused on covering the technology and business issues that make a real difference to the people in the industry.